TRIED TO RETURN THE HORSE TO HIS OWNER.
SI AND SHORTY were on the anxious lookout for the Deacon when he
arrived, and not a little worried lest something might have befallen
him.
Si's weakness made him peevish and fretful, and Shorty was not a great
deal better.
"It's an awful risk to have an old man and a civilian come down here
into camp," Si complained. "And he oughtn't to go about alone. He's
always been used to mingling with the quiet, honest, respectable people.
Up home the people are as honest as the day is long. They're religious
and peaceable, and Pap's never knowed no other kind. He wouldn't harm
nobody for the world, and none o' them'd harm him. He's only a child
among these toughs down here. I wisht one of us was able to be with him
all the time."
"That father o' yours is certainly quite an innocent old party," Shorty
answered, consolingly, "and the things he don't know about army life'd
make more'n a pamphlet. But he has a way of wakin' up to the situation
that is sometimes very surprisin'. I wisht I was able to go about with
him, but I think he's fully able to take care o' himself around in camp.
There's always somebody about who won't see an old man and a citizen
imposed on. But what I'm afraid of is that he's wandered out in the
country, huntin' for somethin' for us to eat, and the guerrillas've got
him."
And he and Si shuddered at the thought of that good old man in the hands
of the merciless scoundrels who infested the mountains and woods beyond
the camps.
"Yes," mourned Si, "Pap's likely to mosey out into the country, jest
like he would on Bean Blossom Crick, and stop at the first house he come
to, and set down with 'em on the porch, and talk about the weather, and
the crops, and the measles in the neighborhood, and the revivals, and
the price o' pork and corn, and whether they'd better hold their wheat
till Spring, and who was comin' up for office, and all the time the
bushwhackers'd be sneakin' up on him, an' him know no more 'bout it
than where the blackbirds was roostin'. He's jest that innocent and
unsuspiciouslike."
"If they've ketched him," said Shorty fiercely, "we'll find out
about it, and when we git able, we'll go out there and kill and burn
everything for five miles around. I'll do it, if I have to spend the
rest o' my life at hard labor on the Dry Tortugas."
They heard the rattle of light wheels on the frozen ground outside, and
the hoof-beats of a quickly-moving horse.
"Buggy or spring-wagon," muttered Si with a farmer boy's instinctive
interpretation of such sounds. "What's it doin' in camp? Strange horse.
In better condition than any around here."
The vehicle stopped in front of the corn-crib at the Deacon's command,
"Whoa!"
"Gracious--there's Pap now," ejaculated Si, with whom memory went in
a bound to the many times he had listened for his father's coming and
heard that order.
"Hello, boys," called out the Deacon. "How are you? Shorty, come out
here."
Shorty sprang up with something of his old-time alacrity, and Si made an
effort to rise, but was too weak.
"Throw a piece o' that fat pine on the fire. Shorty," said the Deacon,
"and let's see what I've got."
By the light of the blazing pine, the Deacon pulled off the cedar boughs
and developed his store. The boughs had kept in the heat, so that the
food was not yet quite cold, though it had a resinous flavor, from its
covering. The Deacon broke one of the cornpones in two and gave half of
it to Shorty, with as much as he thought he should have of the meat and
vegetables. Then he fed Si, who relished the new diet almost as much
as he had relished the chicken broth. The Deacon made a hearty supper
himself, and then stored away the rest in his "cellar" under the crib,
rolling up some more large stones as an additional precaution.
"Well, you beat me," said Shorty admiringly, as he studied over the
Deacon's booty. "I used to think I was as slick a forager as there was
in the army, but I simply ain't in the same class with a man that kin
go out in this Sahara Desert o' starvation and bring in a four-year-old
horse and a wagon-load o' cooked vittles. I'd never even see the
distance pole runnin' with him. Gen. Rosecrans ought to know you. He'd
appoint you Commissary-General o' the army at once. When I get a little
stronger I want you to take me out and learn me the ABC's o' foragin'.
To think that me and Si wuz grievin' about your being ketched by the
guerrillas. What fools we wuz. It wuz lucky for the guerrillas that you
didn't run acrost 'em, for you'd a ketched 'em, instid o' 'em you."
"That's what I come purty nigh doin'," chuckled the Deacon. "But what
in the world 'm I goin' to do with that hoss and buckboard? I must hunt
around and find that poor beast some corn for tonight. He's bin driven
purty sharp, and he needs his supper jest as bad as I did mine, and I
won't feel right unless he has it. Then I must try to git him back to
his owner termorrer."
"If he's here to-morrer," said Shorty, looking at the animal carefully,
"it'll be a miracle. That's too good a hoss to be kept in this camp by
anybody lower'n a Brigadier-General. The boys'll steal him, the Captains
take him, the Colonels seize him, and the Brigadier-Generals appropriate
him for the Government's service. They'll call it by different names,
but the horse goes all the same. I don't see how you're goin' to keep
him till mornin'. You can't put him in your cellar. If they don't steal
him, it's because it's too dark to see him. I'm sorry to say there's an
awful lot o' thieves in the Army o' the Cumberland."
And Shorty looked very grieved over the deplorable lack of regard in the
army for the rights of property. He seemed to mourn this way for several
minutes, and then broke out with:
"Say, Mr. Klegg, I've an idee. That Quartermaster o' the Maumee
Muskrats is a sport from way back. He'd give his vary eyes for a good
hoss--one that kin beat everybody else's. The way the horses are run
down now this one kin carry a heavy handicap, and beat any one in camp.
I'll bet I kin take this hoss over to him and git $150 in greenbacks for
him, for he kin win a bushel o' money with him the very first day."
"Shorty," said the Deacon, in a tone that made that worthy start,
"necessity and the stress o' circumstances may force me to do many
things which are agin my conscience, and for which I shall repent
in sackcloth and ashes, if needs be, but I hain't yit bin reduced to
sellin' stolen property. The Lord save me from that. That hoss and
wagon's got to go back to the owner, if I risk my life in takin' 'em."
Shorty wisely kept his reply to himself, but he thought how absurd it
was to have men about the army who were too old and set in their ideas
to learn army ways. He muttered to himself:
"If he succeeds in gittin' that hoss outen camp agin, I'll expect to see
the back o' my neck, or something else quite as wonderful."
The Deacon finally succeeded in getting a couple of ears of corn and a
handful of fodder for the horse's supper, and it was decided that Shorty
should watch him the first part of the night, and the Deacon from thence
till morning.
As the Deacon pondered over the matter in the early morning hours, he
saw that his only chance of getting the horse back was to start with him
before daylight revealed him to the men in camp.
[Illustration: WELL, I'LL BE DUMBED, MUTTERED THE DEACON. 35]
"I'll drive him well outside our lines, and as near to the house as I
think it prudent to go, and then turn him loose," he said to himself.
"If he's got the sense o' the horses up North he'll go straight home,
and then my conscience will be clear. If he don't, I'll have done all I
could. The Lord don't ask unreasonable things of us, even in atonement."
So he cooked as good a breakfast for the boys as he could prepare from
his materials, woke up Shorty and put him in charge, and an hour before
daybreak turned the horse's head toward the pontoon bridge, and started
him on a lively trot.
He had only fairly started when a stern voice called out to him from a
large tent:
"Here, you, stop that trotting. What do you mean? Don't you know that
it's strictly against orders to trot horses in their present condition?"
"Excuse me. Captain," said the Deacon. "I"
"Blank your Captain," roared the voice; "I'm no Captain."
"Major," said the Deacon deprecatingly.
"To thunder with your Majors, you ignorant fool. You"
"I beg your pardon, Colonel. I was"
"What's the matter with you, you ignoramus?" roared the voice, more
indignantly than ever. "Don't you know Brigade Headquarters when you see
them? Don't you know your own officers when you hear their voices?"
"Rayly, General," said the Deacon, much disturbed, "I didn't mean to
insult you. I'm only a citizen, and a stranger in the camp, and--"
"A citizen and a stranger," echoed the voice. "What are you doing in
here, anyway? Orderly, bring that man in here till I see him."
The Orderly started to obey, when a regiment which had been ordered to
report at Headquarters came up at quick step, halted, and ordered arms
with much clatter. The frightened horse bounded off down the road, with
the Deacon sawing on the lines and trying to stop him.
He only slowed down when he came up near a corral of other horses, to
which he turned for companionship and sympathy.
"Frosty mornin' makes that hoss purty frisky," said the Deacon, as he
readjusted his hat, and got himself in shape after his jolting. "Lucky,
though. I didn't like that old General's voice. I'm afraid he had it
in for me, and would 've made me trouble for lowerin' his dignity by
callin' him Captain. Big officers are awfully tetchy."
"Here, who are you? And what are you doin' out there?" came the stem
inquiry from the dark depths of one of the sheds.
"Excuse me. General," answered the Deacon hastily, "I"
"General? Who are you callin' General, you fool? Don't try to be funny
with me. You know I'm no General."
"I meant Colonel," the Deacon started to explain.
"The blazes you did. You expect Colonels to run hoss-corrals, and manage
mule boarding-houses, do you? stop your blimmed nonsense and answer my
questions."
"Major, I was tryin' to say"
"I'll Major you when I git my boots on and git out there. Don't think to
shut my eye up callin' me big titles."
"But, Captain."
"I'm no Captain, neither. I'm plain Jim Crimmins,
Quartermaster-Sergeant, in charge o' this corral, that you're stealin'
around. I'm comin' out there to break every bone in your body. You
infernal sneaks 've pestered the life out o' me stealin' my corn and my
mules, even. I've bin watchin' you piroutin' around in the dark for a
long time. I'm goin' to stop this business if I've got to kill every
thievin' varmint in the Army o' the Cumberland. Don't you dare move till
I come out, or I'll put a bullet through you. Do you hear?"
"I don't believe I've got any more time to waste on that bellerin'
bull-calf," said the Deacon to himself. He gathered up the lines, turned
the horse's head toward the road, and gave him a lick with a switch, and
he dashed off, followed by a couple of shots from Mr. Crimmins, to give
color and confirmation to the story that worthy related later in the day
of a particularly audacious attempt on the part of sneak thieves to get
away with his mules and corn, and which was frustrated by his vigilance
and daring.
As the horse slowed down to a walk again a Sergeant of the Guard at the
head of a squad stepped out and took him by the reins.
"Here, who are you, and where are you going so early in the morning?" he
inquired.
"My name's Josiah Klegg, sir," said the Deacon, prudently ignoring
titles. "I'm from Injianny, and am down here 'tendin' to my son,
who belongs to Co. Q, 200th Injianny Volunteers, and who was shot at
Chickamaugy. I borryed this hoss and wagon from a man out in the country
to bring in some vittles for him and his pardner, and some boughs for
'em to sleep on, and I'm takin' 'em back to him."
"Well, that story may be true, and it mayn't. Probably it ain't. Men
don't get up before daybreak to take back borrowed horses. You're up
to some devilment; probably taking information or contraband out to
the rebels. I haven't time now to investigate. I'll put you under guard
until I have. As for the horse, we've got use for him. McCook's Cavalry
needs about a thousand such as he. We're out lookin' for horses now.
Unhitch him, boys."
The Deacon started to make an earnest protest, but at that moment the
rebels on Lookout Mountain made their usual daylight salute to the
camp. The size of the squad had attracted their attention, and a shell
shrieked over and struck quite near. This was too much for the nervous
horse. He made a convulsive leap, which scattered the guards around him
and almost threw the Deacon out of the seat. When the latter recovered
himself, and got the horse under control again the guards were far away,
and he was at the approach to the pontoon bridge.
"I'll be plagued," mused the Deacon, as the horse moved over the bridge
at a slow walk, and gave him time to think, "the army's a terrible
place. I had no sort o' trouble when I was doin' something that mebbe I
oughtn't to have done, but the minute I start out to do a right thing
I meet no end o' difficulties. But these are the obstacles that Satan
always puts in the way of the righteous. I'm goin' to git this boss
'back to its owner, or know the reason why. Git up, there."
He soon came to a piece of the road which was in full view of the rebels
on Lookout Mountain. They had been preparing the day before to stop all
travel by that route, and the Deacon's was the first vehicle that had
appeared since they had got their guns planted. They waited until he was
fairly out into the open, and sent a shell which struck a panel of
the fence off to the left, burst with a crash, and sent rails, chunks,
stones and pieces of brush flying through the air. The horse became
frantic, and tore up the hill at such a rate the buckboard and harness
speedily went to pieces, and the Deacon was flung in the ditch, while
the horse galloped wildly over the hill.
The Union artillerymen on Moccasin Point had evidently anticipated just
such an attempt on the part of the rebels. Instantly a score of guns
which had been placed to cover that spot thundered out, and their shells
could be seen striking and tearing up the ground all around where the
shot came from. Other rebel guns came to the assistance of the first
one; the Union batteries within reach started in to help their side, and
in a minute the whole country was shaking with the uproar.
"Well, I'll be dumbed," muttered the Deacon, crawling out of the ditch,
shaking himself together again, cleaning off the mud, and trying to
comprehend what was happening. "Did anybody ever see sich a commotion
kicked up over one four-year-old hoss, and not a particularly good hoss
at that? 't'd take a mighty smart man to git as much as $100 for him up
in Posey County. Nobody but a Methodist Elder could do it. I've sold a
better hoss than that for $80, and got all he was worth."
He stood for a few minutes and looked at the grand display until the
Union batteries, satisfied that they had finally quashed the impudent
rebel, ceased firing, and then he looked around.
"Well, that buckboard's done for. I can't take it back. It's only good
for kindlin' wood now. But I may ketch the hoss and take him back."
He went up on top of the hill, and saw the horse standing under a tree,
apparently pondering over what had happened, and wondering whether he
should run farther or remain where he was.
The horse gave him a glad whinney of recognition, as if congratulating
him on escaping from the crash of matter.
"Yes, you beast," snorted the Deacon; "I'm safe, but no thanks to you.
You done your best to kick my brains out. Twice your condemned heels
jest grazed my eyebrows. All the thanks I git for tryin' to save you
from being starved to death there in Chattanoogy, and git you back home.
But you go back home all the same."
He led the horse to a rock, mounted him, and started up the road.
He reached the point where the road to the house turned off, and was
debating whether he should go farther or turn the horse loose there,
when he saw a company of cavalry coming up the main road from the other
direction--that toward Bridgeport. Though they wore blue overcoats, he
had learned enough about army life to not trust this implicitly, so he
prudently rode into the woods to watch them until he could make sure.
The company came up to where the roads parted, and he overheard a man
who rode by the Captain at the head, and who wore a semi-soldier costume
and seemed to be a scout or guide, tell the Captain:
"Their camp's right over there on that ridge (pointing to the crest on
which the Deacon had seen the smoke). They're probably on the lookout
for us, and we'll have to be very careful if we get near enough to jump
them. I thought I saw one of their lookouts about here when we came up.
Yes, there he is in there."
The Deacon had started to ride boldly toward them when he was sure they
were Union troops, and a couple of the men, who in their dealings
with bushwhackers had learned that it is best to shoot first and ask
questions afterward, had promptly fired, and cut twigs uncomfortably
near the Deacon's head. His horse plunged, but he kept him in hand and
called out:
"Hold on! Hello! Don't do that. I'm a friend. I'm from Injianny."
"You're a devil of a way from home, and in a bad neighborhood," said
one of the men who had fired, as he slipped another cartridge into his
Sharpe's.
The Captain interrogated him as to who he was and what he was doing out
there, while the scout fidgeted in his saddle over the time that was
being wasted.
"Captain," said the scout finally, "we must hustle if we're going to
strike those fellers before dark. We can't go down here, but' ll have to
make a long circuit around, so they won't see us."
"That's so," said the Captain, adjusting himself to start.
"Captain," said one of the men, "my horse can't go any farther. He's
been in bad shape, and he fell and broke his knee coming up the hill."
"Well, here, take that citizen's horse. Old man, get off, and let this
man have that horse."
The Deacon started to protest, but the man was in a hurry, and almost
pulled him off, and slapped his own saddle on in a flash.
"But what am I do to?" asked the Deacon bewildered.
"Do? Do as you please," laughed the Captain. "You are as well off here
as anywhere. When a man's away from home one place's the same's another
to him. Here, I'll tell you what you can do. See that cow back there?
The boys have been trailing her along, in hopes to get her into
Chattanooga and make beef of her. We've got to leave her now, for we are
going on the jump. We'll make you a present of her and this broken-down
horse. That'll start you in business. A horse and a cow's a big start
for any man. Good-by. Attention, company! Forward, head of column
right--March!"
"Well, I've done all I could," said the Deacon, going back and picking
up the rope which was tied to the cow's horns. "The Lord knows I've
tried hard enough to git that hoss back. The cow looks as if she's a
good milker. A little milk'll do the boys good. Then, they kin have
fresh beef. Come along, Bos."
Late at night he tied the cow to the corn-crib and went to his weary
bed.